Autobiography of Dan Young , a New England preacher of the olden time.

Preface

It is said that an autobiography is valuable in proportion as it embrace's stirring times in the history of a nation. If this be true in relation to the state, it may be affirmed, with equal propriety, that an autobiography which embraces stirring times in the history of the Church must possess an interest of equal value. When we descend to particular Churches, and consider the exciting events connected with their history, we shall find that autobiographies of men who took a prominent part in those events are full of interest to that particular Church with which they were connected. Everything relating to the early history of Methodism in this country possesses a value to the members of that denomination, and as the early period of the Church history was the most exciting, the autobiographies of her pioneers will always claim precedence, both in point of importance and interest. Such is the autobiography presented to the reader. Dan Young entered upon the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the most exciting times of her history, particularly that part of it which relates to the introduction of Methodism in the ]STew England States.

Dan Young became a Methodist preacher at a time when Puritanism prevailed throughout Kew England as the established religion, enjoying the prestige of antiquity, position, and influence, and had interwoven itself with all the traditions, prejudices, and habits of the people. He seemed to have been raised up for the special purpose of resisting ecclesiastical tyranny, and through his talented and persevering efforts in the Senate of New Hampshire, he succeeded in obtaining religious liberty, not only for the Methodist, but for all other denominations. The beloved and faithful colleague of Hedding, who bore noble testimony to his personal piety and elevated talents, he showed himself, during the period of his ministry in ISTew England, " a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." Skilled in polemical divinity, he proved himself a match for the giant controversialists of that day, and the reader will find, in what we regard as the most interesting feature of the book, a perfect armory of defense against the attacks of error in its various forms. His reasoning is plain, practical, and logically conclusive on the subjects discussed. There is a spice of shrewdness, united with a tact which in all controversies is of great service, and without which no talent can be successful, pervading all his discussions. Frank, dignified, and sincere, with a perfect geniality of disposition, he never lost his equanimity of temper, never indulged in personalities or harsh words ; always self-possessed, he had an advantage over many of less equable temperament and of stronger prejudices. His whole aim seems to have been to find out the truth on all subjects, and submissively bow to her behests alone.

Twenty-five years ago we formed his acquaintance in the West. He was then President of the Franklin Furnace Company, which had its works on the Ohio Biver. The company had several iron furnaces embraced in the circuit, and as we had been appointed to the ministerial field, we were placed in the relation of pastor. Never in all our itinerant wanderings did we meet with a more cordial welcome. Young and inexperienced, he took us by the hand, and with all the kindness and gentleness of a father, he advised and encouraged us in the toilsome and difficult work of the ministry. From the time he traveled with the beloved Hedding up to the present, we hesitate not to say, in all his relations with Methodist ministers he has shown himself the generous, faithful, kindhearted, noble-souled friend and brother. As a preacher, citizen, and public servant, having been for several years a member of the Ohio Legislature, he has contributed to the religious, literary, and material interest of his adopted state.

"We may be partial, and our regard for an old friend may lead us to overestimate the value of his autobiography; but we are of the opinion that no work of the kind, having superior worth, has appeared from any denominational press. Nothing will here be found to offend the nicest taste ; while its practical lessons of wisdom, and the deep and consistent piety which pervades its pages, will stir and improve the hearts of all who may peruse them.

His address to itinerant ministers is worthy of all attention, and the sentiments there expressed must commend themselves to all engaged in the traveling ranks. Impressed as he was with the importance of the work, and deep and extensive as was his acquaintance with the itinerancy, the itinerant will here find lessons of practical wisdom which will prove of no small service to him in the great work in which he is engaged. An experience that embraces the East and the West, the North and the South, from one who serves as a connecting link to the past ; an experience that goes back to the times of Asbury and Lee, and comes down to the present time, must possess an importance of the greatest value to the ministry of the day. Especially will this prove of service to our younger brethren in the itinerancy, and all who aim at that noblest and best of objects, to save souls and build up and fortify the Church. The days of hardship in the itinerancy to a great extent are passed; but the examples of heroism, as furnished by our pioneer fathers, should ever be before us to stimulate to zeal, energy, and perseverance in the various departments of Church enterprise. We have other fields besides those in our own land to enter and cultivate for Immanuel: fields white unto harvest, and waiting for the laborers ; fields challenging toil, and hardship, and heroic bravery ; let the noble deeds of our fathers in the ministry urge us to their speedy occupancy.

His address to the local ministry, founded as it is on an experience of many years, is so seasonable, and its tone and spirit so admirable, that our brethren in the local ranks cannot fail to be greatly benefited by it. A problem which the local brethren, as well as the Church, have found it quite difficult to solve, growing out of the large numbers in the local ranks, and the paucity of fields of labor at the present day, will be found to a great extent explained in this address. The members of the Church will also find admirable lessons in this interesting autobiography, and we commend it most heartily to all. The young men of the present day will find lessons of wisdom from a genial old man, whose vast and varied experience in the ways of world is such that they cannot fail to be interested and profited by his advice. In fine, this autobiography is absolutely refreshing, and among the large number of biographies which have recently been published, we opine it will take first rank, both in interest and value.

Chapter I

Birth — Parentage — Indian War — Eeligious Advantages — A beautiful Prayer — Pioneer Preachers — First Sight of Jesse Lee — Eemarks in a Sermon — Elijah E. Sabin — John Brodhead — Conversion of a Brother and Sister — Author's Opinion of Dancing — Works on Universalisra — Opposition to the Methodists — Persecution of Children — Eesults — Studies — Singular Dream — Counts the Cost of being Eeligious — Invited to manage a Ball — Conversion — Letter to Managers of the Ball — Mother's Advice about joining Church. . .Page 13

Chapter II

His Brother enters the Ministry — John Brodhead — Joins the Church — Prevailing Eeligions — Opposition — Called to preach — Eemarkable Answer to Prayer — An Incident — The Sinner found out — The Dustins — A thrilling Story — Admitted into the New England Conference — His Colleague — Eules — Interrupted while preaching — Obstacles — Hardships — Challenge to a Discussion — Barre Circuit, Vermont — Elijah Hedding — Criticism — Controversy on Universalism — Sabin and Calvinism — Personification of the Devil — Hedding a Master of English Literature — Perils in crossing Lake Champlain — Van Eensselaer — The Preacher and his Eent — Faithful Preaching 33

Chapter III

Wonderful Eevival — First Mourners' Bench — Trophies of Grace — Protracted Meeting — Singular Exercises — Their Use — Books read — Calvinistic Missionary — Controversy — Wise Determination of a Party on the Way to a Ball — Eeligious Instruction of Children — Study of Hebrew at Dartmouth — Interesting Conversation with the Professor of Theology — Good Advice — Sisters in Israel — Tribute 54

10 CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

Annihilation of the Wicked — Dr. Martin Euter — The Jewish Eabbi — Texas — The Infidel Club — Judge Johnson — A stiff Question— The Club broken up — Calvinistic Dogmas — Controversy with a Calvinistic Divine — Debate on the Question of Universal Salvation — A Shaker Village — The chief Kuler— Shaker Doctrines — A delightful Exercise — Self-sacrifice of Methodist Preachers Page 69

Chapter V

Conference at New London — Bishop Asbury — Lynn — Pastoral Labor — Mode of Operation — Old Seat of New England Methodism — Pioneer Apostle — First New England Conference — Motto — Boston — Excursions in the Country — Discourse to Young People — Aaron Lummus — Zion's Herald — Lindsey — Marriage — Location — Methodist Itinerants — Local Preachers — Lorenzo Dow — Personal Appearance— Anecdote of Dow — Garrettson — Bishops M'Kendree and George — Description of Lynn — Nahant — Salem — An Incident — Beflections 89

CHAPTER YI.

Early Methodism in New England — Grave Charges — Opprobrious Epithets — Two great Political Parties — A Piece of Gossip — An Incident— Love-feasts — The Irishman and the Bowdy — Disturbance of Beligious Meetings — Casting out a Devil — Persecutions — A Congregational Minister — Anecdote of Jesse Lee — A Cambridge Student outwitted — Great Effects from little Causes — A pious old Lady — A supernatural Voice — Query — Local Preacher — Deistical Club — An Incident 101

Chapter VII

Methodist Preachers not allowed to celebrate the Bites of Matrimony in New England — Marriage performed contrary to Law — Lawsuit instituted— Dropped — The Physician's Wife — Power of Christian Example— Incident — Female Exhorter — Eloquence — A wicked Father — City Life — Lured from the Path of Piety — Sickness — Eeflection — Price of the Soul — End of a Scoffer — Fearful Death of a Slanderer — Father's Imprecation — Horrible Decree — Merrill and the Calvinistic Missionary — Methodist and Calvinist Preachers on board a Packet — Controversy — Intolerance in New England — Mode of settling Ministers — Ordination Scenes — Taxes for the Support of the Ministry — Sample of Bigotry — Life of Bishop Hedding — Clerical Convention and Methodist Preachers — Interesting Colloquy — Decision in Ee-

CONTENTS. 11

ligion — Conversion of a Colonel — The Author's Preceptor — His Advice — Eeproof on a Steamer — Bishop Coke — An Effectual Sermon Page 117

Chapter VIII

The Local Ministry — No Compensation for Services — Suggestions — Scruples about Traveling — Labors as a Local Preacher — ■ Necessity of Harmony of Action — A Controversy with an old Calvinist Deacon — Cause of Salvation — Newbury, Vermont — Methodism introduced — Discourse on the Nature of Good Works — Sermon on Universal Bedemption — Election — Prosecution for Sabbath-breaking — Calvinistic Convention — Challenge to a Debate — Last Sermon at Newbury — A Scene at Baptism — Falling of a high Bridge — New England Camp-meetings — An Incident — Glorious Time — An interesting Conversion

— A sensible Deist — His Conversion — A Mob dispersed — Numerous Conversions 158

Chapter IX

Newbury — Salvation by Works — Sermon — An Incident — Bemarkable Answers to Prayer — Talents taken away — John Collins — His Success as a Minister in the West — Character of Deism — Eequest to preach on a particular Text — The Sermon — Journey to the West — Search for stolen Goods — Profane Swearing — Child lost — An amusing Incident — Society in Southern Ohio — A great Camp-meeting — A Band of Miscreants — Hog Thieves — Condition of the Catholics — The Priest and Boy — A Priest outwitted 175

Chapter X

Origin of Methodism — Colleagues of Wesley — Controversies — Methodism in America — Personal of early New England Preachers — Abbott

— Labors — Incidents — Mitchell — Jesse Lee — Pickering — Sabin — Taylor — Bostwick — Webb — Soule — Euter — Bishops of Olden Time

— Hedding — An Incident — James Young — Sketches of Bishop Hedding's Sermons — A Freewill Baptist — Conversion of a Sailor — Sugar-making — Dreadful Calamity — Eemarkable Conversion of a Young Lady — The hospitable Man 211

Chapter XI

A Protracted Meeting at Lebanon, Ohio — Bishop Soule — Ex-Bishop Hamline — A Beautiful Spring — Conversion of a Distiller — A Melancholy Spectacle at Cincinnati — Quarterly Meeting — Eev. W. B. Christie — Sad Tidings — Ironton, Ohio — Eev. J. W. Young — Eev. W. T. Hand — Eev. Messrs. Creighton, Given, Spahr, and Vananda —

1 2 CONTENTS.

Temperance — Treating at Elections — A Bill in the House of Eepre- Bentatives — Custom of Members — First Temperance Society in the West — A humorous Incident — A Minister and Drunken Woman — Decline of Temperance Efforts Page 267

Chapter XII

The Author's Connection with Legislation — Legislating and Preaching — Eesponsibility — Ministerial Tax — Injustice of the Law — Oppressive Exaction — A Baptist Preacher imprisoned — A Bill introduced into the Senate to repeal the Law — Nature of the Bill — Eesult of the Vote — Keintroduction of the Bill — Synopsis of Speech — Eeply — Eejoinder — A tie Vote — Great Consternation — Finally carried — Taken to the House — Eesult — Determined Opposition — A noble Defense — The Bill for Eeligious Eights becomes a Law — The Past and Present of Methodism compared — Eecollections — Christian Love and Union — Methodist Literature — Institution of Learning — Prospects of the Church — Doctrines — Organization — Missions — Wesley's grand Conception 278

Chapter XIII

Effects of Preaching — Immediate Eesults — Presbyterian Minister at Hanging Eock — Eeply to his Doctrinal Sermons — Discourse on Decrees — Possibility of falling from Grace — Christian Perfection . . . 304

Chapter XIV

Address to Members of the Church — Statistics — Signs of the Times — What most needed— Great Object of Methodism — An Incident — Good Motto — Necessity of Union — Support of the Ministry — Beneficence — Luxuries — Needless Self-indulgences —Ways of Usefulness opened — Prosperity of the Church 329

Conversations with Errorists— Atheists— Deists— Universalists— Debate - Unitarians — Necessitarians 368

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF

DAN YOUNG.

Chapter I

Birth — Parentage — Indian War — Eeligious Advantages — A beautiful Prayer — Pioneer Preachers — First Sight of Jesse Lee — Eernarks in a Sermon — Elijah E. Sabin — John Brodhead — Conversion of a Brother and Sister — Author's opinion of Dancing — "Works on Universalism

— Opposition to the Methodists — Persecution of Children — Kesults

— Studies — Singular Dream — Counts the Cost of being Eeligious — Invited to manage a Ball — Conversion — Letter to Managers of the Ball — Mother's Advice about joining Church.

I was born in the state of New Hampshire, on the Ammonoosuck River, in Grafton County, on the seventh of April, in the year of our Lord 1783; a year memorable as the one in which peace was made between the United States and Great Britain at the close of the Revolutionary war, a period which gave to our country the blessings of independence and a name and standing among the nations of the earth. My father, Jesse Young, was an officer in the American service in the aforesaid war. He was born and raised in Massachusetts. My mother was a native of Connecticut; her maiden name was Kuby Richardson ; my ancestors on both sides came from England. My parents, while in their minority, emigrated to New Hampshire, where they were married, and settled in the place of my nativity. An Indian war soon broke out on the frontiers, which gave them great alarm. My father, together with his scattered neighbors, erected a fort, into which they all went with their families for mutual protection. The Indians having learned this, and that they would there meet a very warm reception, did not attack them. My parents raised a large family of healthy and robust children ; they were industrious and enterprising, and my father became the wealthiest man in the county in which he lived. Their first-born was a daughter named Sally, their second was a son named James, and I was the third.

As I advanced in life my religious privileges were very small, there being no church, no religious meetings, and.no religious persons in the neighborhood. My mother, though not a professor of religion, early taught me its first rudiments ; she also taught me that beautiful and simple evening prayer :

AUTOBIOOKAPHY OF DAN YOUNG. 15

" Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep ; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."

This prayer is adapted to the old as well as the young, and should be solemnly used by all on retiring to rest. I believe I have never omitted it from early life. She also taught me the Lord's Prayer, which I devoutly used evening and morning. At the age of seven or eight years I occasionally prayed without using these forms. I continued in this course up to the age of about fourteen, when my parents sent me to a dancing school, thinking it would be a polite accomplishment. Youthful as I was, I soon found that praying and dancing would not go together, and having no religious guide, and not being sufficiently firm to come out alone in religion, I gave up praying and acquired a strong relish for balls, convivial parties, and in short for all the gay pleasures of youth. I still, however, had a pride of character which made me despise everything low and inglorious. I never had a fight, nor became intoxicated, nor ever used a profane word in my life. The low and vulgar vices I held in utter contempt.

When I was fifteen, those heralds of the everlasting Gospel, the Methodist preachers, penetrated into the part of the country where I lived, and now, while I think of it, my heart burns with love and gratitude to God that he sent those faithful embassadors to turn the people from their sins to the ways of righteousness.

I was standing in my father's door one day, and saw a robust-looking man riding a horse with another following behind. That person was Jesse Lee, the apostle of Methodism in New England; and being a heavy man, and his rides long, it was necessary that he should have two horses to perform the labor of carrying him. Soon after this he preached in Landaff, an adjoining town. My sister Sallie went to hear him and was much interested in his sermon ; she told me that, among other things, when speaking of the sinner being dead in trespasses and sins, he observed that " it is sometimes said that they are as dead as a stone, but he would rather say that they were as dead as an egg. No life could be given to a stone without a miracle, but a certain process will produce life in an egg; so the power of the Gospel, by the grace of God, will produce spiritual life in the sinner."

Lee was one of the most prominent among the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BAN YOUNG. Vl

historical characters of New England Methodism. " He was born in Prince George County, Virginia, in the year 1758. His parents were respectable members of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It was his good fortune early to receive, both at school and at home, a strictly Christian education. He mentions in his journal the salutary influence upon his childhood of the catechetical instruction of his teacher. 'In a thousand instances,' he says, 'when I felt an inclination to act or speak amiss, I have been stopped by the recollection of my catechism, some parts of which I did not understand ; yet it was good, upon the whole, that I learned it.' This correct early training produced its usual consequences, conformably to the declaration of the wisest of men. ' I do not,' says he, ' recollect that I ever swore in my life, except one night, being in company with some wicked young people, I uttered some kind of oaths, for which I felt ashamed and sorry all the next day ; and when alone, I felt that God was displeased with me for my bad conduct. I believe I never did anything in my youth that the people called wicked. I used, however, to indulge bad tempers and use some vain words. One of my mother's relations came to

my father's and stayed all night ; the topic of convey sation was experimental religion. While engaged on this interesting subject, my father observed, " that if a man's sins were forgiven he would know it." That sentence, "if a man's sins were forgiven, he would know it," took hold of my mind, and I pondered it in my heart. The next day, when alone in the field, it kept running across my mind, " if a man's sins are forgiven he will know it." I thought it over and over again, and concluded it must be so, for my father said so, and I believed it. At length I began to reason with myself thus : Are my sins forgiven ? I hope so. But do I know it ? No ! I have no assurance of it. Immediately it was impressed upon my mind with uncommon force, Go and pray. The impression was repeated, and I went off into a large branch, which was surrounded with thick bushes ; then I stopped and looked to see if any person was near me, but could see no one ; yet I thought some one might pass that way and see me, so I set off to another place where the bushes appeared to be yet thicker ; but when I came there I was afraid of being seen ; I then went to another place with the same reasoning and the same fears ; but at length I ventured to kneel down, and began to pray that the Jjorc] would forgive my sins. My distress of s< ul at that time was very great, and never wore off till my sins were forgiven. I would frequently, after that time, get by myself, and with many tears pray God to have mercy upon my poor soul, and forgive my sins.

Sometimes, in the open fields, I have fallen on my knees, and prayed and wept till my heart was ready to break. At other times my heart was so hard, that I could not shed a tear. It would occur to my mind, "your day of grace is past, and God will never forgive your sins." It appeared to me that of all sinners in the world I was the greatest. Thus I went on for about four weeks, in which time I never, for an hour, lost sight of my wretched condition. The cry of my soul was, "How shall I escape the misery of hell ?" I cared little about the sufferings of this life if I could but escape eternal misery. I read, that some " asked, and received not, because they asked amiss ;" the remembrance of this made me, for a season, afraid to use many words in prayer, for fear I should pray improperly, and therefore ask amiss. One morning, being in deep distress, fearing every moment I should drop into hell, and viewing myself as hanging over the pit, I was constrained to cry in earnest for mercy, and the Lord came to my relief, and delivered my soul from the burden and guilt of sin. My whole frame was in a tremor from head to foot, and my soul enjoyed sweet peace. The pleasure I then felt was indescribable. This happiness lasted about three days, during which time I never spoke to any person about my feelings. I anxiously wished for some one to talk to me on the subject, but no one did. I then began to doubt my conversion, and to fear that I was deceived. I finally concluded that if I were not converted, I would never rest without the blessing, and began to pray to the Lord to show me my lost condition, and let me feel my danger, as I had previously done ; but as I could not feel the burden of my sins, the enemy of my soul suggested to my mind that the Lord had forsaken me, and that I had sinned away my convictions, and deceived my own soul. Thus I was a prey to those doubts and perplexities for about six months before I could assuredly believe that I was in the favor of God. One evening, traveling in company with a religious neighbor, he asked me if I were ever converted ! I told him I believed I had been. He asked me several questions relative to the circumstances of the change, which I endeavored to answer. He then said, "You are surely converted." I was much strengthened by that conversation, and so much encouraged as to tell other people, when they asked me, what the Lord had done for my soul.'

" When, in 1774, a Methodist society was formed in the vicinity, young Lee, then but sixteen years of age, together with both his parents and an elder brother, immediately joined it. The doctrine and spirit of the new sect were accordant with their own experience. His father freely opened his house as a regular preaching-place of the circuit, and for nearly half a century it was the home of the laborious itinerant whenever he passed through that section of his field. ' Like the house of Obed-Edom,' says the biographer of Lee, ' the Lord blessed his, because the ark of the Lord rested there. This son often took sweet counsel with the preachers who visited his father's. They not only imparted instruction by the public ministration of the word, but in social conversation they gave such advice as was suited to the particular case of each individual.'"

Lee entered the itinerancy in 1783, and after traveling thirty-three years he closed his labors with his life. As the pioneer of New England Methodism he occupies a prominent place in the history of the Church.

Elijah K. Sabin, a man of deep piety and great

22 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF DAN YOUNC4.

zeal, and John Brodhead, a very eloquent man, whose astonishing power in prayer would seem almost to bring heaven and earth together, with others full of zeal and the Holy Ghost, labored with great success in this part of the country. The following admirable tribute to the memory of Broadhead we take from the "Memorials of Methodism."

"Mr. Brodhead was a true Christian gentleman, courteous, unaffectedly dignified, and yet of a temper so kindly and benign, that all who approached him loved him, and even little children found in him an endearing reciprocation of their tender sympathies; he was universally a favorite among them. His moral character was pre-eminently pure and lovely. He was ever hopeful, confiding in God and in man, forbearing toward the weak, co-working with the strong, instant in prayer, living by faith, entertaining large and apostolical views of the gracious provisions of the Gospel and the gracious purposes of Providence. All felt in his company that they were in the presence of a largeminded, pure-hearted, and an unlimitedly trustworthy man. With such a character he could not but be generally popular, and such was the respect and esteem entertained for him by his fellow-citizens of ISTew Hampshire, that, besides important offices in their state legislature and executive council, he was sent by them, during a term of four years, as their representative in the Congress of the United States, and his consent alone was necessary to have secured to him the supreme office of the state. While in civil offices he retained unabated the fervency of his spiritual zeal ; in Washington he maintained, at his lodgings, a weekly prayer-meeting, which was composed of his fellow legislators ; and on Sabbaths he preached, more or less, in all the neighboring Methodist churches.

"As a preacher, he possessed more than ordinary talents; his clear understanding, combined with quick sensibilities and a vivid imagination, could not but render him eloquent on the themes of religion. He was partial to the benigner topics of the Gospel, and often would his congregations and himself melt into tears under the inspiration of his subjects. When he treated on the divine denunciations of sin, it was with a solemnity, and at times with an awful grandeur that overwhelmed his hearers. 'I heard him,' says Eev. T. C. Peirce, ' when I was a young man, preach on the last judgment, in Bromfieldstreet chapel, on a Sabbath evening, and if the terrible reality had occurred that night its impression could hardly have been more awfully alarming.' At such times, 'seeing the terror of the Lord,' he persuaded men with a resistless eloquence, his large person and noble countenance seemed to expand with the majesty of his thoughts, and he stood forth before the awe-struck assembly with the authority of an embassador of Christ.